Teacher Guide: Lesson 15.8

The Weekly Reader Connections feature on Kids' Place Houghton Mifflin Math provides children with additional practice of the skills taught in the Curriculum Connection feature in their student books.

There are many stories regarding the invention of the game of dominoes. Most historians agree that the earliest version of it was invented in 12th-century China. The game in its present version seems to have its origins in Europe, perhaps in 19th-century Italy.

If you have a set available, distribute the dominoes. Allow the children time to examine the pieces. Elicit that each domino piece is made up of two squares. In a conventional “double-six” set of 28 dominoes, most dominoes have squares with one to six dots. Some dominoes have squares with no dots. Other dominoes have an equal number of dots on both squares. These dominoes are called “doubles.”

The “Domino Dots” activity asks children to identify the domino that represents a given addition sentence. Children need to understand that whichever way a domino is held, horizontally or vertically, the dots on each of its squares can represent an addend in an
addition sentence.